Conversations with Miss Brooks
by melodicmoonstar89
Summary: To accompany A Griffin's Tale. Takes place during chapter 8 when Sirius talks to the head of the orphanage about Arion and Aly.


A/N: This is my second attempt at a one-shot. The last time I tried was a failure, so I decided to write one to accompany Chapter 8 of A Griffin's Tale. This is to talk about what happens when Sirius went to talk to Miss Brooks. Please don't flame it and if anyone can think of a better title, I'll take it!

-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/

Sirius was walking to the office of the orphanage. Opposite of what he told Arion, he had a plan to get her out. Of sorts. The little girl, Aly, might be a little harder, though, to get.

"I would never consider bringing a set of adopted siblings apart," Sirius thought, thinking about his days with the Potter's and how he was like a brother to James. As he was knocking on the door, he was thinking about what might happen if he can't adopt Aly. "We'll just have to live in London. Granted, I had wanted to move somewhere not in the city, but oh well."

Sirius had another reason for wanting to adopt Aly as well as Arion. Arion was going to be leaving for Hogwarts in a month, meaning he would not be able to get to know her as well as he would like to know his daughter. With Aly around, he wouldn't have to be alone while Arion was gone and he would learn more about her.

The door opened and a brunette with hazel eyes opened the door. "Hello, may I help you? It's kind of late," she said.

Sirius looked down at the watch he borrowed from Remus. It was about quarter of ten now. "Yes, I was wondering if I could talk to Miss Brooks?" he asked.

"Call me Julia. Come on in," Miss Brooks, or Julia, said. "And you are?" she asked once Sirius had sat himself down in a chair in front of her desk.

"I am Sirius Black. I'm Arion's father," Sirius said.

"Do you have any proof of being her father? And, why haven't you been able to care for her in the past decade?" Julia asked.

Sirius took out Arion's birth certificate and handed it to Julia. "There was a string of coincidences. I was arrested and no one would here a shred of evidence to help me until today when they found Arion. Then I was released and they said I could regain custody of her," Sirius stated.

Julia looked over the birth certificate and decided it looked authentic. "You can have custody over your daughter, but there may be some problems," she warned.

"What kind of problems?" Sirius asked.

"There's the fact that you haven't even been taking care of yourself in the past decade. Can you really take care of your 11 year old daughter?"

"Not only do I think I'm capable, but I have a friend who would help me and my cousin's daughter to help," Sirius said.

"My other concern is about how she would feel about being separated from one of the other kids here," Julia admitted.

"The little girl, Aly, I think Arion said her name was. Arion also mentioned that her mother had died in a car accident?" Sirius said.

"Aly, or Alyssa, to use her real name, is an interesting case," Julia admitted.

"Interesting? How so?" Sirius asked.

"Well, Arion being your daughter, you probably have noticed the fact that unusual things happen around her when she's feeling a strong emotion. Or when she wants a hair change."

"Yes, I know about that," Sirius admitted.

"Well, Alyssa has that too. The other interesting part is something Arion wouldn't remember as she was too young," Julie started. "The woman who died in the accident wasn't Alyssa's true mother."

"How do you know this?" Sirius asked.

"I asked the person who was previously in charge of the orphanage about the children. She mentioned that Aly and Arion were extremely close. She also told me that Aly had first come to the orphanage when she was a couple days old, before Arion first came to the orphanage. Even when Arion came, she wouldn't have remembered because it was a rough time for Arion because she was still crying for you, especially when she had a bad dream," Julia said.

Sirius nodded. "I was wondering how she was going to do. Her mother passed away in childbirth, so I was the only one to raise her."

"Aly came here April of that year and she was adopted about a month after Arion got here. Babies always go quickly in the orphanage. Four years later, the woman who adopted her was killed in a car crash, so Alyssa was sent back here, where she quickly bonded with Arion."

Sirius thought about it, before asking, "Do you have any idea who the birth parents are?"

"I would assume one of them had a red-head in the family and had green eyes, though the eyes could have been hazel," Julia said.

Sirius thought about what he had been told. Red-head and someone with green eyes…weirdly, that sounded like Lily, but it couldn't have been her since she was dead. "Would there be any problems if I wanted to adopt her as well?" he asked.

Julia was shocked. Here was a man who had apparently just gotten out of jail and here he was, wanting to not only finish raising his daughter, but he wanted to take the little girl who was like a sister. "Is there any particular reason why? I mean, obviously you would want to have custody of your daughter, but why Alyssa?"

"When I was in school, I didn't have a very good home life. When I was sixteen, I ran away from my parents and my best friend's parents allowed me to live at their house like I was another son. I always considered him my brother, so I would never want to rip apart a relationship like that. Especially since he died a few years ago," Sirius said.

Julia nodded, admitting that made sense. "Well, since you have been judged fit to regain custody, I wouldn't see why there would be a problem with you having custody over both. I would just like to see them about every six months for about 2 years to make sure everything is alright."

Sirius did the math and figured the first time would be at the end of January, beginning of February. "I think that would be ok. Anything else you can tell me about them before you unleash them on me?" Sirius asked.

Julia smiled at the fact that Sirius seemed interested in who the children were as individuals, not based on how they looked like some people. "Well, Arion loves to do sports. The only problem we have had with her is she gets into a lot of fights with people, but she doesn't get into too much trouble since usually it's because she stands up for someone. Aly is a lot like Arion in that she likes to do sports, but she is a bit more arts oriented. Though, she sometimes jumped into the fights as well," Julia admitted.

Sirius chuckled a bit. "They sound a bit energetic. I met Aly in the hall when she ambushed Arion. I didn't think someone could talk that fast. I was pretty winded after that," Sirius admitted.

"She is a bit of a fast talker. Just keep them both away from too much sugar," Julia said.

"Mental note: keep Arion and Aly away from Albus," Sirius thought to himself. "I'll keep that in mind. Anything else?"

"I think that's about it. Sam, can you go and get Alyssa and Arion for me?" Julia called to the other woman in the next room.

"Are they in their room?" Sam asked.

"That's were I would look first. Arion has always had a sixth sense about things, so I'm sure they're already packing, but doing it so in a way that it looks like they aren't. Though, them moving things around in there would alert pretty much everybody," Julia said thoughtfully.

"Why is that?" Sirius asked.

"Arion and Aly are somewhat neat when it comes to their rooms, but in a way that it's neat to them. In other words, their room is pretty much like a bomb went off, but not in a major way since they don't have too much stuff."

Sirius smiled hearing that. "Well, we should get along just fine," he said as a knock on the door was heard.

Updated May 28, 2007


End file.
